This year's contest features quotes by two environmental writers: Aldo Leopold, who believed that the idea of community should include humans, plants, and animals, and the land, and Joy Harjo, an Indigenous writer, musician, and poet, who writes about human's connection to land.
ESSAY PROMPT: Using examples from your own experience, write about how we can learn important lessons by paying attention to the natural world. Be sure to reference both quotations in your essay.
QUOTATIONS:
QUOTATIONS:
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“It's possible to understand the world from studying a leaf. You can comprehend the laws of aerodynamics, mathematics, poetry and biology through the complex beauty of such a perfect structure. It's also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing.”
― Joy Harjo, The Woman Who Fell from The Sky: Poems |
“The last word in ignorance is the [person] who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?"
― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac |
2026 Aldo Leopold Writing Contest Lesson Plan
If you have not had your students write personal essays, introduce the concept of a personal essay as a way to write in which students can write a report, but also add their opinions, stories and beliefs. Emphasize how they should focus the tone of their essay on their "voice," rather than just relaying information or facts.
Teach four 1-hour lessons leading up to the contest. Ideally start the week after the holiday break.
Lesson 1 Get Outdoors
Find an outdoor location near your school. Bring the students there and, as a class, document the plants and animals that you see.
Have an open discussion about what animals and plants mean to them and how they affect and improve their lives. Some questions to consider:
Lesson 2: Use Your Five Senses
Creative writing assignment about what the students can discover in a leaf. Invite the students to close their eyes and think of a leaf. Ask them what they hear, what they smell, taste, feel, and see. Write these down in greater detail, and then write what we can learn from a leaf.
Lesson 3: Ethics and the Land
As a classroom, have a discussion about ethics. What are ethics? What does it mean to make ethical choices? Teachers are encouraged to use quotes and excerpts from Aldo Leopold’s essays and Joy Harjo’s poems and essays to foster this conversation. Collaboratively develop a definition of ethics and how they can be applied to our relationship to the land. Ask students to write a short creative writing piece applying the concept of ethics to their own experiences with the natural world. Give the students a chance to research an element of the natural world (a plant, an animal, etc.) and ask them to consider how they apply the concept of ethics to this thing.
Lesson 4: Draft an Essay
Using the rubric below and paragraph outline below (or create a rubric and outline that is a better fit for your classroom), have the students write a draft of their essay.
Essay Rubric:
Introduction:
1. Get your reader's attention.
2. Make a statement.
3. Restate the essay prompt/topic- what is your response?
Body Paragraphs (2-3 Paragraphs)
1. Identify with your prompt/topic and offer personal experiences that relate to it
2. Personal Challenges (What is your challenge with the prompt/topic? How did you overcome it? How does your experience and knowledge create how you look at this? How did you learn from your failures?)
3. Achievements (Who helped you along the way? What did you learn when you succeeded?)
4. Beliefs (How do your beliefs/principles/morals relate to the prompt/topic?)
5. Goals (What are your academic and personal goals surrounding this topic? How can you and your community achieve these goals?)
6. End with a reflection on the essay prompt/topic.
If you have not had your students write personal essays, introduce the concept of a personal essay as a way to write in which students can write a report, but also add their opinions, stories and beliefs. Emphasize how they should focus the tone of their essay on their "voice," rather than just relaying information or facts.
Teach four 1-hour lessons leading up to the contest. Ideally start the week after the holiday break.
Lesson 1 Get Outdoors
Find an outdoor location near your school. Bring the students there and, as a class, document the plants and animals that you see.
Have an open discussion about what animals and plants mean to them and how they affect and improve their lives. Some questions to consider:
- What would it mean if many of the trees and plants in your community died or got sick? How would that affect our day-to-day lives?
- If you could talk to the trees or the trees could talk to you, what do you think they would say? What about the animals?
- Do you have a favorite tree or plant in your neighborhood?
- What senses are engaged when you see a leaf? Think about sight, smell, taste, touch, sound.
- Has this plant been in New Mexico for a long time?
- What animals eat this plant?
- Have humans used this plant? What have these plants meant to them and how did they improve their lives?
Lesson 2: Use Your Five Senses
Creative writing assignment about what the students can discover in a leaf. Invite the students to close their eyes and think of a leaf. Ask them what they hear, what they smell, taste, feel, and see. Write these down in greater detail, and then write what we can learn from a leaf.
Lesson 3: Ethics and the Land
As a classroom, have a discussion about ethics. What are ethics? What does it mean to make ethical choices? Teachers are encouraged to use quotes and excerpts from Aldo Leopold’s essays and Joy Harjo’s poems and essays to foster this conversation. Collaboratively develop a definition of ethics and how they can be applied to our relationship to the land. Ask students to write a short creative writing piece applying the concept of ethics to their own experiences with the natural world. Give the students a chance to research an element of the natural world (a plant, an animal, etc.) and ask them to consider how they apply the concept of ethics to this thing.
Lesson 4: Draft an Essay
Using the rubric below and paragraph outline below (or create a rubric and outline that is a better fit for your classroom), have the students write a draft of their essay.
Essay Rubric:
Introduction:
1. Get your reader's attention.
2. Make a statement.
3. Restate the essay prompt/topic- what is your response?
Body Paragraphs (2-3 Paragraphs)
1. Identify with your prompt/topic and offer personal experiences that relate to it
2. Personal Challenges (What is your challenge with the prompt/topic? How did you overcome it? How does your experience and knowledge create how you look at this? How did you learn from your failures?)
3. Achievements (Who helped you along the way? What did you learn when you succeeded?)
4. Beliefs (How do your beliefs/principles/morals relate to the prompt/topic?)
5. Goals (What are your academic and personal goals surrounding this topic? How can you and your community achieve these goals?)
6. End with a reflection on the essay prompt/topic.
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Aldo Leopold Biographical Information |
Aldo Leopold’s “The Land Ethic”
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Joy Harjo Biographical Information |
Joy Harjo's Writing
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Exploring the Native Plants of New Mexico
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Curriculum Resources for New Mexican students
- The Outdoor Learning Toolkit: Browse this website of free outdoor education lesson plans for New Mexican students
- Bosque Education Guide from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History
- 350 New Mexico: Environmental Curriculum and Activities for New Mexico and the Southwest
- Learn about Aldo Leopold Activity
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Voices Beyond Leopold: Other Writers on the Relationship Between Humans and the Land These essays by diverse writers can help get students thinking about environmental writing and their Leopold Writing Contest essay submissions.
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Wild Friends Program Are you interested in engaging your students in environmental advocacy? There will be conservation related bills at this year's legislative session. Learn how to get your students involved in this advocacy work at www.wildfriends.unm.edu. |
